Practice pommel horse assembly

ABSTRACT

A practice pommel horse assembly comprising a pommel horse, on which a gymnast can be with his hands gripping the handles, the assembly further having a foot carriage mounted on wheel means for rolling across a floor in a circle around the pommel horse, the foot carriage having a pivotally attached foot support means to which the feet of the gymnast can be attached for support, the foot support means being free to rotate about a horizontal axis with respect to the frame of the foot carriage.

United States Patent [1 1 Riley 1 Oct. 23, 1973 PRACTICE POMMEL HORSE ASSEMBLY [76] Inventor: Bruce G. Riley, 8026 Maple St.,

Quehaflsbr- @8 -V 1 m. [22] Filed: July 16, 1970 211 Appl. No.: 55,366

[52] U.S. Cl. 272/64, 272/57 J, 272/80 [51] Int. Cl A631) 5/12 [58] Field of Search 272/57 A, 57 B, 58,

272/60, 64, 79 R, 80, 57 D, 57 R; 128/25 B [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,511,312 10/1924 Alastalo ..272/57D 2,250,493 7/1941 Milne 272/57 D 2,253,996 8/1941 Bechman 272/57 D 2,815,020 12/1957 Barkschat..... 128/25 B UX 2,921,791 1/1960 Berne 272/80 X 1,948,534 2/1934 Nelson et a1. 128/25 B 2,679,116 5/1954 Ho1combe.... 272/80 UX 2,819,081 1/1958 Touraine 272/57 R X 3,301,553 1/1967 Brakeman 272/80 3,309,084 3/1967 Simmons 262/79 R FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 113,030 2/1918 Great Britain [28/25 B Primary ExaminerRichard C. Pinkham Assistant ExaminerRichard J Apley AttorneyHiram A. Sturges [57] ABSTRACT A practice pommel horse assembly comprising a pommel horse, on which a gymnast can be with his hands gripping the handles, the assembly further having a foot carriage mounted on wheel means for rolling across a floor in a circle around the pommel horse, the

foot carriage having a pivotally attached foot support means to which the feet of the gymnast can be attached for support, the foot support means being free to rotate about a horizontal axis with respect to the frame of the foot carriage.

6 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures 2 Sheets-Sheet l B INVENTOR.

BRUCE G. RILEY BY hw /.4

Patented Oct. 23, 1-973 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 l ll FIG. 2

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l :5 CF: H k h INVENTOR. BRUCEGRILE FIG. 4

1 PRACTICE POMMEL HORSE ASSEMBLY FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention is in the field of gymnastic equipment.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART Prior art pommel horses of the standard type have all been built with long legs so as to be mounted high off the floor.

In the advance use of a pommel horse, there are many extremely advanced moves, which are very difficult to master, and there has long been a need for some means of assisting a practicing gymnast to practice these advanced moves and train his muscles gradually to be able to do these moves.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A practice pommel horse assembly comprising a pommel horse, on which a gymnast can be with his hands gripping the handles, the assembly further having a foot carriage mounted on wheel means for rolling across a floor in a circle aroundthe pommel horse, the foot carriage having a pivotally attached foot support means to which the feet of the gymnast can be attached for support, the foot support means being free to rotate about a horizontal axis with respect'to the frame of the foot carriage.

The pommel horse having a height much less than that of prior art so that the upper portions of the handles thereof are spaced from the lower part of the pommel horse which engages the, floor, a distance in the range from 1 foot 6 inches to 2 feet 4 inches, whereby the handles and the top of the pommel horse are disposed in positions close enough to the floor to make it practical for the foot carriage to support the feet of the operator without the operator being at an excessive inclination with respect to the horizontal during use.

The foot carriage having its foot supporting service means provided with a foot engaging surface disposed at an acute angle with respect to the axis of rotation of the foot support means, which angle is preferably approximately 15 so that the operators toes are farther from the pommel horse than the operators heels.

Particular objects of the pommel horse assembly are to make possible the practice by beginners and experts of the extremely advanced moves, such as swiss turns, russian moores, kehr in and kehr out, loops, and reverse moores; and by using the pommel horse as a traveling pommel horse, stockleys, and tromlets, can also be practiced.

A further object is to provide a pommel horse assembly making delightful exercises possible which develop abdominal definition, so that each stomach muscle developes so that it stands out visibly, and so that the body is developed to a slim waist with prominent mus-' cles like our ancient Greek statues.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the pommel horse of this invention being gripped by a gymnast shown in one position in full lines and in another position in dotted lines, and showing the foot carriage of the pommel horse assembly in full lines in each of two sequential positions, an arrow line indicating the arc of swinging of the foot carriage.

FIG. 2 shows the pommel horse and foot carriage in end view with the gymnast in a sitting position for indicating how his feet are attached to the foot carriage.

FIG. 3 is a right elevation of the foot carriage of FIG. 2 with the feet of the gymnast shown in dotted lines.

FIG. 4 is a right elevation of the pommel horse of FIG. 2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The pommel horse assembly of this invention is generally indicated in FIGS. 1 and 2 at 10 and comprises as one of its parts a pommel horse means, generally indicated at 12, comprising a pair of parallel handles 14, which extend transversely across a central portion of the back 20 of the pommel horse 12, extending a substantial distance upwardly from the upper surface 24 of the back 20.

-The back 20 has two legs 30 and 32 which are disposed in vertically extending spaced apart parallelism at the right and left side 34 and 36 of the back 20, the legs 30 and 32 have lowermost surfaces 50 and 52 which are engaged with the floor at at least three points for stability, although it is much to be preferred that the legs 30 and 32 extend substantially the entire length of the pommel horse, which is a distance of many feet for providing stability, the number of feet being not so great, however, that a gymnast cannot swing his legs across the ends 74 and 76 of the back 20, while his body is at an inclination as shown in FIG. 1 with respect to the horizontal, which is an inclination of an acute angle such as for example 30.

The handles 14 are spaced apart a substantial distance so that the operator can seat himself therebetween at desired times, and so that they are close to the side of his body.

The uppermost part of each handle 14 is disposed at a distance above the surfaces 50 and 52, or in other words, at a distance above the floor 60 of approximately in the range between 1 foot 6 inches and 2 feet 4 inches, so that with the body an an acute angle with respect to the horizontal, as seen in FIG. 1, and with the arms reaching down and holding the handles in supporting the chest, the feet of the gymnast can be disposed close to the floor and supported on a foot carriage generally indicated at 100, and which latter has a foot support means, generally indicated at 110, attached to a pivotal mounting means, generally indicated at 120, in a manner whereby the foot support means is adapted to rotate with respect to a frame portion of the foot carriage 100, preferably about an axis 136, which latter extends approximately horizontally, it being understood that the frame portion 130 is supported by wheel means generally indicated at on its underside, the wheel means 150 preferably comprising at least three and preferably four spaced apart wheel assemblies which latter are of the caster wheel type or any suitable variety of that type such that the frame portion 130 is free to glide and roll across the floor surface 60 in any direction freely.

The wheel assemblies 160 can be disposed so that the axis 136 is held always in approximately a horizontal position. The foot support means 110 has a foot support surface means shown at 200 which latter is preferably at an inclination of approximately 15 with respect to the vertical, the surface 200 being disposed in a plane therefor which is at approximately 15 with respect to the vertical, so that the operators heels are disposed closer to the pommel horse than his toes, the position of the operators heels being determined by heel receiving cups 260, which extend around portions of the lower part of the heels of the operators shoes 270.

With the heels 270 held in the heel cups 260 which are spaced apart along side each other, very closely spaced apart, the tops of the operators feet are held in place by strap and lace assemblies, generally indicated at 270, the strap and lace assemblies being attached to the foot support means 110 and extending removably across the tops of the users feet to firmly fix the users feet to the foot support means with the feet substantially along side each other in substantial touching positions, although they can be somewhat spaced apart, such as by a spacing rib shown at 280 in FIG. 3.

The foot support surface means 200 has on it a footreceiving area having a perimeter generally defined by the outer sides of the position of the operators feet taken in combination and as seen in dotted lines in FIG. 3, such area being of a size for receiving thereagainst both of the feet of the gymnast; and the foot support surface means 200 is so attached to the pivotal mount-- ing means 120 as to maintain the foot area in a position extending across the horizontal axis 300 of a pivot shaft 302 which forms the main part of the pivotal mounting means 120.

The shaft 302 extends through an upstanding portion 310 of the foot carriage 100, which latter is disposed above generally horizontally extending base portion 330 of the foot carriage 100, which latter has the wheel assemblies 160 attached to its underside.

The pivotal mounting means 120 further has as one of its parts the foot support means 110, which latter is a rigid member attached to the shaft 302 transversely of its axis with the foot support surface means 200 extending at an acute angle of inclination with respect to a plane which is at a right angle to the axis 302.

In operation, and as seen in FIG. 1, the gymnast can swing his body so that his feet travel in a wide arc with the foot carriage 100, traveling in an are indicated by the arrow line 300, so that the foot carriage travels around and around the pommel horse as the operator uses his arms on the handles 14 in the manner usually done in pommel horse work.

The pommel horse has lower surfaces 50 and 52 which engage the floor 60 at at least three points 500, 502 and 504 for stability.

I claim:

1. In combination: a pommel horse having upstanding handle means, a foot carriage disposed adjacent and to one side of said pommel horse, said foot carriage having a frame portion, a pivotal mounting means secured to said carriage frame, foot support means attached to said pivotal mounting means, said foot support means being free to rotate with respect to said frame about an axis extending approximately horizontally through said pivotal mounting means, said foot support means having foot supporting surface means on one side thereof for supporting the feet of a gymnast in approximate parallelism with each other, means for attaching said feet to said foot support means, said carriage having wheel means thereunder for engaging a horizontal floor and disposed in position for supporting said carriage as said carriage rolls on said wheel means across said floor, said wheel means being of a construction for permitting said carriage to roll thereon horizontally in any direction, said foot support surface means having a foot-receiving area thereon of a size for receiving thereagainst both of the feet of a gymnast, said foot support surface means being so attached to said pivotal mounting means as to maintain said area in a position extending across said axis.

2. The foot carriage of claim 1 in which said foot supporting surface means has an inclination with respect to a plane which is at a right angle to said axis which is an acute angle.

3. The foot carriage of claim 1 in which said foot supporting surface means has an inclination with respect to a plane which is at a right angle to said axis which is an acute angle, said acute angle being approximately 15.

4. The combination of claim 1 in which said pommel horse means has a back portion above which said handle means extend, said pommel horse having supporting means having lowermost surface means engageable with said horizontal floor at at least three points in a plane for stability.

5. The combination of claim 4 in which the uppermost portion of said handle means is spaced above the plane of the said three points of said lowermost surface means a distance which is between 1 foot 6 inches and 2 feet 4 inches.

6. The combination of claim 1 in which said means for attaching the feet of the gymnast to said foot support means comprises a pair of heel engaging means attached to the foot support means in a manner for supporting the heels of the operators feet when his feet are disposed substantially side by side in parallelism, and lace means attached to said foot support means and adapted to be removably attached across the tops of the operators feet. 

1. In combination: a pommel horse having upstanding handle means, a foot carriage disposed adjacent and to one side of said pommel horse, said foot carriage having a frame portion, a pivotal mounting means secured to said carriage frame, foot support means attached to said pivotal mounting means, said foot support means being free to rotate with respect to said frame about an axis extending approximately horizontally through said pivotal mounting means, said foot support means having foot supporting surface means on one side thereof for supporting the feet of a gymnast in approximate parallelism with each other, means for attaching said feet to said foot support means, said carriage having wheel means thereunder for engaging a horizontal floor and disposed in position for supporting said carriage as said carriage rolls on said wheel means across said floor, said wheel means being of a construction for permitting said carriage to roll thereon horizontally in any direction, said foot support surface means having a foot-receiving area thereon of a size for receiving thereagainst both of the feet of a gymnast, said foot support surface means being so attached to said pivotal mounting means as to maintain said area in a position extending across said axis.
 2. The foot carriage of claim 1 in which said foot supporting surface means has an inclination with respect to a plane which is at a right angle to said axis which is an acute angle.
 3. The foot carriage of claim 1 in which said foot supporting surface means has an inclination with respect to a plane which is at a right angle to said axis which is an acute angle, said acute angle being approximately 15*.
 4. The combination of claim 1 in which said pommel horse means has a back portion above which said handle means extend, said pommel horse having supporting means having lowermost surface means engageable with said horizontal floor at at least three points in a plane for stability.
 5. The combination of claim 4 in which the uppermost portion of said handle means is spaced above the plane of the said three points of said lowermost surface means a distance which is between 1 foot 6 inches and 2 feet 4 inches.
 6. The combination of claim 1 in which said means for attaching the feet of the gymnast to said foot support means comprises a pair of heel engaging means attached to the foot support means in a manner for supporting the heels of the operator''s feet when his feet are disposed substantially side by side in parallelism, and lace means attached to said foot support means and adapted to be removably attached across the tops of the operator''s feet. 